Not Wanted. Political Artist, Clinton Fein, Returns with New Body of Work

After a twelve year hiatus, renowned political artist, Clinton Fein, has returned with a new multi-pronged anti—Trump campaign. Highly critical of Trump and those in his orbit, Fein capitalizes on new technologies and platforms, to be followed by "real world" exhibitions scheduled for 2021.

Previous exhibitions covering politics of the George W. Bush era, including the Abu Ghraib torture, were highly controversial, resulting in his printer destroying art work prior to an exhibition, and ArtForum magazine refusing to run ads disparaging Rudy Giuliani in the aftermath of 9/11.

Fein’s art career was catapulted as a result of his web site annoy.com, which was launched in conjunction with a First Amendment lawsuit filed against then Attorney General, Janet Reno. The lawsuit was ultimately decided in Fein’s favor by the United States Supreme Court. Additional federal First Amendment and privacy lawsuits followed, setting powerful precedents in the emerging field of Internet law.

Fein became the first South African born American to appear before, and win, at the Supreme Court, forging the path for technology companies like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to rely upon Section 233 to protect them from liability for third party content. Section 233 has more recently been in the crosshairs of Donald Trump, as he lashes out against tech companies, especially TikTok.

"Political art is on a whole different level from when I last exhibited,” said Fein. “In 2020 digital versions of my NOT WANTED poster designs are available for free download and re-mix. Appropriation isn’t just an unfortunate byproduct of creating art, it’s the whole point. I want people to print out NOT WANTED images. I want them to create and share their own NOT WANTED digital political art. While these play on the old fashioned WANTED posters for criminals, and all of the subjects are indeed either criminals -- or complicit in aiding and abetting them -- the truth is that politically and morally they are simply NOT WANTED. It is time for artists everywhere to share this very simple truth with everyone."

“The approach is layered. I will be producing another set of images containing text/dialog, and a further set inviting others to also personalize the language they want to promote. It’s critical we get clear about what we don’t want. What is NOT WANTED. More important, and what I am planning 'real world' exhibitions world-wide for 2021 focused on what is WANTED. A much deeper exploration.”

Targets of Fein’s vitriol include Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Mike Pompeo, Betsy DeVos and senators Susan Collins and Mitch McConnell.

For information, contact Jason Wilson

Clinton Fein Wikipedia Page

Clinton Fein Web Site

First Amendment Activism/Supreme Court

Annoy.com History

Clinton Fein Media and Reviews

Partial Collection of Images